EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

Developing a New Generation of Oil and Gas Leaders: Strategic Financial Skills

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SMU Cox Executive Education  has now expanded its network and joined forces with American Petroleum Institute (API) to deliver executive education curriculum to petroleum and natural gas industry professionals worldwide.

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"In today's competitive environment, energy companies are doing more with less—and in leadership positions, technical skills matter less than business acumen. Financial skills, accounting knowledge, capital-allocation expertise and strategic insight are necessary to make your mark in the company. This course tackles those subjects and helps non-financial managers in every function of the company understand, interpret and use data to make better business decisions."
Michael R. Vetsuypens, Ph.D.,
Professor of Finance
SMU Cox School of Business

Description

Hundreds of executives have chosen our Strategic Financial Skills program for its concentrated coverage of financial management techniques uniquely tailored to the complexities of their industry. This comprehensive weeklong program uses a hands-on approach to help you understand and master the energy sector’s financial essentials. Your instructors are senior teachers with significant experience in executive development, business, consulting and energy industry financial management. You’ll share ideas and discuss industry issues with participants from around the world in small discussion groups and lively classroom sessions. You’ll meet mid-level to senior-level professionals from many segments of the energy industry and a variety of functional areas within their companies. In a series of information-packed class sessions, you'll learn the essentials of the business side of the energy industry. By the end of the week, you'll have a working knowledge of the key areas of financial management.

Who should attend?

• Mid-senior level non-financial managers wishing to achieve financial literacy in an energy-industry setting
• Financial managers wishing to sharpen their skills, broaden their base of knowledge and relate their functional skills to a broader, general management context
• Typical participants have more than five years of management experience, range in age from mid-30s to early 50s and work for oil and gas firms or for firms in related energy industries, including pipeline companies, service and supply organizations, government agencies and financial institutions.

Topics

• Value creation. Focusing on the creation of value rather than operational measures of success; how managerial decisions affect the firm's value
• Capital investment and project evaluation. Basic discounted cash flow concepts; estimating cash flows and determining the appropriate cost of capital; comparing capital expenditure techniques—payback, IRR, NPV, etc.; reappraising the project decision—some "softer" issues to consider after the numbers have been run.
• Financial accounting techniques. Understanding the three primary financial statements—income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement; distinguishing between reported profit and cash flow; analyzing published oil and gas company annual reports; reporting the results of oil and gas firms—full-cost vs. successful-effort vs. standardized-measure data required by the SEC
• Financial planning and forecasting. Planning the firm's sustainable growth; estimating future financing needs based on pro-forma statements and other projections; making short-term vs. long-term financing decisions; planning for growth or decline
• Measuring performance. Measuring the performance of business units and individual managers; interaction between measurement systems and company strategy; evaluating performance in times of uncertainty
• Performance management. Aligning incentive compensation and strategy; designing incentive plans based on economic-value-added principles; the balanced-scorecard approach
• Financing large energy projects. Comparing project financing to internal financing; creating value by efficiently allocating risk; understanding how capital markets evaluate risk and return in infrastructure projects; assessing bond rating process
• Financial engineering. Demystifying derivatives; understanding forwards, futures, swaps and options; weighing the benefits and risks of hedging programs

Benefits

• Gain a working knowledge of key financial techniques, practices, terminology and controversies
• Learn essential financial concepts to strengthen your management skills—in a concentrated setting away from the workplace
• Participate in stimulating classroom case discussions on relevant oil and gas industry topics
• Learn how other companies have implemented successful financial strategies
• Prepare yourself to make better financial and operating decisions—and master a better decision-making framework
• Acquire techniques for assessing the performance of your subordinates, your division, or your company
• Study and develop concepts and techniques you can apply to your job immediately
• Prepare yourself for advancement to a more senior management role in your company
  

Faculty 

• Michael F. van Breda, Ph.D., associate professor of accounting, teaches managerial accounting at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He also teaches accounting theory, financial accounting and advanced topics in accounting. In 22 years of teaching at SMU, van Breda has served as chairman of the Accounting, Business Law and Tax departments; director of the SMU-in-Oxford program; and director of the Graduate Certificate Program in Finance. He has received numerous teaching awards. Van Breda is the author of “Prediction of Corporate Earnings and Accounting Theory” and numerous scholarly articles. His primary research interests are accounting theory and accounting history. Van Breda completed his undergraduate studies in pure mathematics and theoretical physics at the University of Stellenbosch. He holds a master’s degree in business, summa cum laude, from the University of Cape Town and a doctor of philosophy degree in accounting from Stanford University.
   
• Jody Magliolo, Ph.D., is professor and distinguished chair in accounting. Magliolo taught accounting in the undergraduate and MBA programs at Carnegie-Mellon University and the Wharton School before joining Southern Methodist University. Magliolo’s primary teaching interests lie in the areas of financial accounting and financial statement analysis. His dissertation examined oil and gas firms’ “reserve recognition accounting” disclosures. These disclosures, included as a part of oil and gas firms’ annual reports, value firms oil and gas reserves using rules specified by accounting policymakers. Subsequent research analyzed the relations between proved reserve disclosures in the financial statements and the valuation of oil and gas firms. Magliolo’s excellence in the classroom has been recognized with teaching awards for graduate student instruction at Wharton and SMU. He is also the recipient of the Cox 1995 MBA Distinguished Teaching Award and the 1996 Research Excellence Award. Magliolo’s current research focuses on the interaction of financial accounting and regulatory issues in banks and insurance companies. He has published articles in the “Journal of Accounting Research,” the “Journal of Accounting and Economics,” the “Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance,” and “The Accounting Review,” where he has served as a member of the editorial board. He earned a bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering from the University of Texas and served as a process engineer for Union Carbide. He holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Texas and a doctor of philosophy degree from Stanford University.
   
• Michael R. Vetsuypens, Ph.D., professor of finance, teaches corporate finance and international finance in the undergraduate program, MBA program and executive MBA program. Vetsuypens’ research interests include leveraged buyouts, investment banking, the venture capital market, initial public offerings and CEO compensation. His studies has been published in the leading finance journals and presented at numerous professional finance conferences. A native of Brussels, Belgium, Vetsuypens speaks several languages. He has taught managers in the U.S., Europe, Japan, the Middle East and Latin America. His corporate executive education clients include ConocoPhillips, Anadarko, Valero Energy, Texas Instruments, PdVSA, Saudi Aramco and others. During his tenure at Cox, Vetsuypens has received numerous awards for excellence in teaching, research and community service. He holds a master’s degree and a doctor of philosophy degree in business administration from the University of Rochester and was selected as a Fulbright Fellow.